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Stream: Ford & Lopatin’s Channel Pressure

In a summer filled with brilliant, weird, VHS-indebted electronic pastiche—Com Truise's self-titled debut, Boxcutter's The Dissolve, Stephen Farris' actual VHS release Cosmic Sound II—maybe the most surprising distinction of Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure is its straightforward singing. Formerly known as Games, the duo is comprised of bros-since-junior-high Joel Ford and Daniel Lopatin, and they've crafted one of the cleverest records of the year, bridging early computer/arcade fetishism with campy, deftly manipulated disco-pop vocals. It's slick and grainy at the same time, full of perfect moments like the switch one minute into "Break Inside," the album's tenth track, when an ecstatic human laaaa morphs into a sitar sound, then quickly back again. The whole thing is streaming for a week, then out for real on June 7th through the duo's new Software imprint and Mexican Summer.